The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced Tuesday it is offering eligible faculty and staff a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payment equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

UW-Oshkosh becomes the third campus within the UW System to offer buyouts in an effort to reduce its workforce in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first, followed last week by UW-Superior.

UW-Oshkosh expects about 100 employees would be eligible. It has set a goal of reducing its workforce by 80 within the next three years.(106)

Blog Archive

Posts for June, 2013

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has dropped its lawsuit against Adidas, which outfits the school's athletic teams, after a union representing Indonesian factory workers reached a settlement with the company over severance pay.

UW-Madison's decision to drop the lawsuit was based on the settlement between the apparel giant and the labor union representing the PT Kizone, according to a news release from UW-Madison on Monday. Details of the settlement are confidential.

Representatives of the labor union expressed support for the settlement, UW-Madison said in its release. The Worker Rights Consortium, of which the university is an affiliate, "expressed optimism that it fully resolves the issues," the release said. | June 3, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

In the 13 years he's been chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Richard Wells has been publicly named as a finalist in three searches for top jobs at other universities.

In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about public colleges seeking closed search processes to make it easier for candidates not to upset their current employer, Wells talks about how he managed to remain an effective chancellor at Oshkosh while being publicly vetted for other jobs.

Before his name would be made public in a search, he informed his board and cabinet, so they wouldn't find out about it some other way, Wells explained in the article. He followed that with a campuswide memorandum, explaining it. | June 3, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

The Daily Cardinal reports that the Madison Police Department will increase its patrol numbers during the first five weeks of the school year this fall to curb unruly behavior and address "misconceptions" about college life held by incoming freshmen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madison police Lt. Dave McCaw told The Daily Cardinal that the department will deploy more officers around the downtown and campus areas at the start of the 2013-’14 school year in an effort to educate incoming freshmen whose perceptions of college life may have been shaped by the Internet, movies and television.

The Downtown Safety Initiative began in 2007, when the city allotted $100,000 to the Central Policing District to increase officer presence in the downtown and State St. areas between 11 p.m. and midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That's when the department consistently experienced problems, according to McCaw, | June 3, 2013(1)

The chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been selected as the next dean of the College of Letters & Science, the flagship university's largest academic unit.

John Karl Scholz, also the Nellie June Gray Professor of Economic Policy, will succeed Gary Sandefur, who has led Letters & Science since 2004. Sandefur, a sociologist, will spend the next year on research leave before returning to the faculty, according to a news release Tuesday from UW-Madison.

“Karl is an outstanding academic and colleague whose wide-ranging experience will continue to be an asset,” Interim Chancellor David Ward said in a prepared statement. “We are fortunate that the leadership of the College of Letters & Science will remain in such capable hands.” | June 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

Chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System are publicly jumping into the fray of the state budget debate, encouraging their campus stakeholders to lobby legislators to roll back a proposed freeze on tax dollars and delays in new flexibilities promised in the last state budget.

The Legislature's budget committee in a bipartisan vote last month froze tuition and tax dollars for the UW System over the next two years and delayed new flexibilities over personnel that were promised in the last state budget, leaving public universities to fund several new initiatives from recently disclosed cash balances that triggered a firestorm at the Capitol.

Instead of boosting tuition and tax money by more than $200 million over two years, as initially proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and university officials, state funding to the UW System and a state financial aid board would drop slightly under action by the Joint Finance Committee. | June 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(3)

Kaplan College in downtown Milwaukee, a for-profit that opened in 2006, will close its doors at the end of this month after announcing last fall that it would not enroll new students.

The college at 111 W. Pleasant St., allowed already-enrolled students to finish their programs before closing. The Kaplan University Learning Center in Milwaukee, which supports online coursework, is still enrolling new students.

Kaplan College had about 150 students when it announced it was closing. Its programs included computer support technician, criminal justice, dental assistant, medical assistant, medical office specialist and pharmacy technician. | June 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

After serving less than two years as dean of the School of Education at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carol Colbeck has quietly stepped down to a faculty position.

Colbeck said in an interview Tuesday that it was "time to promote myself back to faculty" after serving six years total as dean, first at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and then at UWM, a position she's held since July 2011.

Colbeck said she pursued the change, but the move from top administrator to faculty member raises questions about internal goings-on among management at one of the state's most prominent teacher-training programs. | June 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

Wisconsin would receive more than $54 million to improve access to early childhood education under a “Preschool for All” proposal from the Obama administration, according to a report from the White House.

The proposal seeks to distribute $75 billion to states in order to improve access to high-quality early childhood education programs, including universal preschool for 4-year-olds along with improved and expanded services for younger children.

The President also seeks $750 million to be competitively awarded to states to support the implementation and expansion of access to preschool for low- and moderate-income families. | June 5, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(20)

Milwaukee Public Schools will be spending about 45% less per-pupil on pension and retiree health care expenses by 2020, according to a report released Thursday that details how MPS has reduced its post-employment benefit obligations.

The reason, the report says: Act 10, and the district using its authority under the controversial law to enact changes such as increasing employees' deductibles and increasing the age and years of service necessary to qualify for retiree health benefits.

“Without Act 10, MPS would eventually spend an additional $105 million - 9.2% of its entire budget - in 2020 due to the growth of retirement expenses,” says a statement released with the new summary report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning education nonprofit that analyzed costs and projected future retirement obligations in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Philadelphia. | June 6, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(122)

Marquette University has received a five-year, $5 million grant to partner with the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center to train future nurses to care specifically for veterans and their families, in anticipation of a VA nursing shortage.

Marquette University's College of Nursing and the Milwaukee VA also plan to work together to advance research related to veteran care.

Milwaukee is one of six sites in the nation chosen for the VA Nursing Academy's Nursing Academic Partnership program through the Department of Veteran Affairs, Marquette University announced Friday. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

Three University of Wisconsin-Madison buildings and a campus complex will be named in honor of Hector F. DeLuca, a professor emeritis of biochemisty whose research led to new treatments for bone disease such as osteoperosis and rickets, the campus announced Friday.

The Hector F. DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Complex will consist of the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemistry Building (420 Henry Mall), the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Building (440 Henry Mall), and the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemistry Addition (433 Babcock Dr.). The buildings house members of the Department of Biochemistry in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry in the School of Medicine and Public Health.

The decision by the UW System Board of Regents is an unprecedented move to name buildings after a living individual within five years of UW System employment. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

The Shorewood School District plans to bring aboard a director of development for the 2013-14 school year, an innovative move for the relatively small district that is looking to develop an additional revenue stream through professional fund raising. District officials said the move will help to offset rising costs in the future.

“This move has been in the works for several years in our long-range planning,” Rob Reinhoffer, Shorewood’s Board of Education president, said Friday. “Going over revenue outlooks, we came to the realization that we need new revenue sources.”

Reinhoffer and Shorewood School District’s Superintendent Marty Lexmond said the move was made after considering the strong support the district already receives from the community. Initially, the board has committed two years to the position, which they expect will sustain itself and more through the funds it will bring in in future years. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(3)

Membership in FFA, the agriculture and career and tech ed student organization, has reached its highest point in 29 years in Wisconsin, with more than 19,000 members, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The evolving youth leadership organization has increasingly an increasingly diverse student membership and an increasing emphasis on projects and classes in STEM fields.

Wisconsin State Assembly Leader Robin Vos on Monday called a package of education provisions in the proposed state budget "common sense middle ground" for parents as well as public- and private-school advocates.

The Republican from Rochester and John Nygren (R-Marinette) discussed a variety of topics with the Journal Sentinel editorial board, and both said that the budget package on the table focuses on their priorities: jobs and education.

The educational provisions have been controversial because while public schools would receive the ability to raise more money per pupil in state aid and property taxes, private schools would see a significant boost as well. The proposal calls for a boost to per-pupil voucher funding in the second year of the budget, as well as a proposal for a limited statewide voucher program. | June 10, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

Rural and urban Wisconsin communities with a shortage of physicians and other health-care professionals are expected to benefit from an initiative that the University of Wisconsin-Parkside is joining through the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health .

Called Rural and Urban Scholars in Community Health (RUSCH), the initiative is designed to select and nurture students from diverse backgrounds who show an interest in practicing medicine in under-served rural and urban areas of Wisconsin, according to a news release from UW-Parkside.

Peter Capelli of Kenosha, Meghan Conley of West Bend, Alyssa Maciejewski of South Milwaukee, Thomas Mehner of Franklin, and Keona Thompson of Racine – all pre-med students at UW-Parkside – are among the first undergraduates selected for RUSCH.

“The UW School of Medicine and Public Health is very familiar with our successful pre-med program,” Bryan Lewis, assistant to the dean for health-related professions at UW-Parkside, said in a news release. | June 11, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

The Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday unamimously approved standards for for-profit colleges and for developers who seek to use for-profit colleges to anchor property developments.

Any for-profit that does not meet U.S. Department of Education financial aid standards would be denied city funds under the new standards.

The standards the for-profits must meet include:
• Colleges cannot provide financial incentives to employees for successfully enrolling or
securing financial aid for students at a school.
• Colleges cannot receive more than 90% of their revenue from federal financial aid sources
authorized through the Higher Education Act. (This does not include GI Bill benefits). Ten percent
must come from private sources.
• Colleges cannot provide false or misleading statements about their plans to maintain a
placement service for graduates or misrepresent assistance to graduates to obtain
employment or about likely future employment outcomes of students.
• Colleges must not have a 2-year cohort student loan default rate of greater than 40%, or a default rate of 30% or higher for the three most recent cohorts. | June 11, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

A Nigerian dignitary is visiting the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Wednesday morning to discuss educational partnerships for economic growth.

The visit by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, will be from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in the second-floor Wisconsin Room of the Student Union, 2200 E Kenwood Blvd. Parking is available in the Union's attached underground parking garage.

Obasanjo, who promotes educational partnerships as essential to his country's economic growth, is now involved in the African Progress Report, a policy-building initiative aimed at establishing equitable and sustainable development on the continent. The initiative was developed by the Africa Progress Panel, a group of 10 distinguished individuals, including Obasanjo. | June 11, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

To engage parents and drum up enrollment, the organization's employees and supporters have been pounding the pavement since winter, knocking on doors and even standing outside of Milwaukee Public Schools buildings and other south side charter and voucher schools, encouraging parents to consider enrolling in their school at 2933 W. Cleveland Ave.

College students with narcissistic tendencies post more often on Twitter, and narcissitic middle-aged adults post more frequent status updates on Facebook, according to a new University of Michigan study on how social media is used to boost egos and control others' perceptions.

The study, published online in Computers in Human Behavior, was conducted by Michigan researchers Elliot Panek, Yioryos Nardis and Sara Konrath. It's among the first studies to compare the relationship between narcissism and different kinds of social media in different age groups..

James DeJong has been elected the next chair of the Carroll University Board of Trustees. He will serve as chairman for three years on the board, which oversees academic, financial and operational decisions for the private Waukesha university.

DeJong, a 1974 graduate of Carroll, is president of the Milwaukee law firm O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing and has served as a member of the university’s board since 2008. He will replace Marna Tess-Mattner, also an attorney, as chair according to the university’s website.

Three new members appointed to the University of Wisconsin System's Board of Regents by Gov. Scott Walker this week should help mend fences with state legislators, add perspective from an underrepresented campus, and bring an auditor's eye for transparency, leaders of a statewide students group said Wednesday.

The three new regents, who had a public hearing Wednesday morning before the state Senate’s Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges, include Joshua Inglett, an engineering student at UW-Platteville from Portage; former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow of Pewaukee; and Janice Mueller, a former nonpartisan state auditor from Madison.

“A student from an underrepresented campus, an elected official to rebuild relationships, and an auditor to check the UW books come together as a solid choice,” said Lamonte Moore, a UW-Fond du Lac student and president-elect of the United Council, which lobbies on behalf of students across UW campuses. | June 12, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Paul M. DeLuca Jr. announced Wednesday that he will step down as the university's chief academic officer and return to the faculty, as the campus's new chancellor prepares to begin her duties next month.

A professor of medical physics and former vice dean for research and graduate studies in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, DeLuca was appointed provost in June 2009 by then-UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin.

A search for DeLuca's replacement will begin in the fall, with a new provost expected to be in place sometime in the spring semester. DeLuca will remain the No. 2 leader on campus until a successor is name, assisting UW-Madison's next chancellor, Rebecca Blank, in her transition. | June 12, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

An Elmbrook School district 8th grader was awarded the grand prize in a statewide business plan contest for her idea for the music app “SongJudge,” a tool for aspiring musicians to record a performance and receive a score based on a variety of musical criteria.

Sara Linderman of Pilgrim Park Middle School was the winner of the “Wisconsin YES!” competition, which was judged by professionals from across the state and featured 44 entries from both middle school and high school students. The contest was produced by the Wisconsin Technology Council, a group that advises state government on science and technology.

“SongJudge” would allow a musician to select a song, record a performance and then receive a score based on accuracy, tone, articulation, volume and tempo. Linderman, a flute player, came up with the idea when looking for a way to objectively judge her performance when preparing for competitions and auditions according to a WTC press release.

Linderman was among 17 finalists asked to submit a 1,000-word executive summary including a company overview, a strategic sales plan, financial projections and outlooks on other potential company needs and strategies. It will be Linderman’s decision to move forward in producing the app, though she would be doing so independently according to a representative from the WTC. | June 12, 2013

A University of Wisconsin-Stout student from Minnesota, and a graduate of a Minnesota university from Wisconsin will be among 51 women vying for the title of Miss USA during the 62nd annual pageant Sunday in Las Vegas.

Danielle Hooper, 21, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., is the reigning Miss Minnesota USA. She will be a senior this fall at UW-Stout, and is majoring in retail merchandising and management. Hooper has received the Chancellor’s Award for maintaining a high grade-point average and works part-time in the Financial Aid office.

Christine Opal Zamora, 26, the reigning Miss Wisconsin USA, is a Greenfield native who graduated from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis with a degree in business and retail management. She currently works in Milwaukee as a client specialist with the O.C. Tanner company, which provides talent development and consulting. She also works as a fashion model. | June 12, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

State Superintendent Tony Evers and local public school officials will hold a news conference this morning to outline their “grave concerns” about the statewide voucher school expansion recently approved in the Joint Finance Committee’s state budget bill.

The conference will take place at ParkwayElementary School in Glendale at 10 a.m., according to a news release from the Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance, an advocacy group that serves 31 urban and suburban school districts.

“The budget bill passed by the Joint Finance Committee, if signed into law, will negatively impact the 850,000 children currently served by our public schools, while further destroying a funding system that is already broken,” the release reads. | June 13, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(40)

A south-side Milwaukee voucher high school that was on the rocks this year has now shuttered its doors, and a student cellphone photo paints an uninspiring view of what appears to have transpired in at least one class this year:

That's Nehnet Camalan, the former business manager for the now defunct voucher school Wisconsin College Prep Academy. Camalan was substitute teaching a math class; the photo was passed along to the Journal Sentinel by a former staff member. | June 13, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(54)

The leader of Wisconsin College Prep Academy, a private voucher high school that was located at 4801 S. 2nd. St., announced in a June 11 letter that the school was closing because of low enrollment and ongoing budget concerns.

Sweeping in to take over: next-door neighbor St. Anthony High School, which just graduated its first crop of seniors from the building at 4807 S. 2nd St., located near General Mitchell Airport. | June 13, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(4)

In recent months, a conservative nonprofit in Michigan called EAGnews.org has been detailing the spending patterns of large Wisconsin school districts by tracking their expenses on check registries, obtained through open-record requests.

Thursday it released an analysis of spending in Milwaukee Public Schools for one academic year, suggesting that the district was spending a lot of money in 2010-'11 on non-essential items such as $331,071 on lodging and related fees at "pricey hotels across the nation," $113,551 on restaurant tabs and more than $350,000 to "move items around the district."

EAGnews.org calls itself non-partisan, but the group's materials lean right and it tends to be critical of public schools. | June 13, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(8)

A leader of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student group is calling for changes in state law to mandate, rather than permit, student candidates for the UW System's Board of Regents to be selected from nominees put forth by elected student government representatives.

A report presented to members of Congress this week called for a renewed academic focus on humanities and social sciences, saying these subjects – which have seen declining enrollments across higher education – are as important for the nation’s economic and political health as scientific and technological education.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates who majored in English was 9.8%, compared with 5.8% for those who majored in chemistry. The unemployment rate for recent philosophy and religious studies graduates was 9.5%. | June 20, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(5)

A memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau picked up by the Department of Public Instruction last night says there's a window for an estimated 600 more students to use taxpayer dollars to attend private schools as part of the statewide voucher expansion plan -- students who would not count toward the much-discussed enrollment cap of 1,500 students over two years.

A proposal from a Milwaukee School Board member to rein in the powers of the board president by giving more authority to the vice president was approved in a very scaled-back form Thursday night.

The Legislative, Rules and Policy Committee adopted a resolution that says the prez and the veep should consult with the superintendent, the director of the Office of Board Governance and the director of the Department of Accountability in planning board agendas and talking about matters that may occur at board meetings.

The resolution also calls for the president to get input from the vice president before approving board member travel, and that any travel that does happen should be reported back to the board. | June 21, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(5)

While the looming doubling of the interest rate for a federal student loan causes angst among parents and college student borrowers, it may not be as ominous as it sounds, according to an author, consultant and speaker on issues that parents with college-bound teenagers face.

As the July 1 deadline nears for Congress to prevent the interest rate on the subsidized Stafford Loan from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, "there are more important financial issues facing Americans who dream of obtaining a college degree without assuming crippling debt," Lynn O'Shaughnessy says in a commentary for CBS MoneyWatch.

The interest rate hike will cost a borrower less than $7 a month to repay the extra interest, O'Shaughnessy reports. Keeping the subsidized rate at 3.4 percent would cost the government $41 billion over 10 years, "which is a high price to pay to save borrowers a few dollars a month," she writes. | June 24, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(4)

Heavy rain Friday night caused extensive damage to a science building and flooded several other buildings on the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus in Menomonie, according to university officials.

The storm caused an estimated 83,000 gallons of water to pour into the basement of Jarvis Hall, 410 10th Ave. E., which then knocked out the electrical system for a block-long complex, including the Jarvis Hall Science Wing, Jarvis Hall Technology Wing and Micheels Hall.

The addition to the Jarvis Hall Science Wing will remain closed for up to two weeks, and possibly longer, because electrical distribution equipment was located in the flooded basement, the university announced in a news releases Monday.

The addition was constructed on the Science Wing while existing space was remodeled just a few years ago, at a total cost of $43 million. | June 24, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

St. Marcus Lutheran School, a private kindergarten through eighth-grade college-prep school that has been expanding in recent years, will dedicate the final stage of a $13.5 million development Wednesday.

The school, which is located on the city’s north side and enrolls 674 students, will open a 14,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility that will serve as a gymnasium, auditorium and performance space, according to a news release. The B. Bruce Krier Center is named after the CEO of Krier Foods Inc. in honor of the company’s financial support for St. Marcus.

Kole Knueppel, the co-founder of Schools That Can Milwaukee, has won a $10,000 grant this week from the Walton Family Foundation for recruiting and training high-performing staff for urban schools.

Knueppel's award is part of a set of grants the foundation awards quarterly to individuals creating and advocating for high-quality educational options for parents, according to a news release from the organization.

The foundation is funded by the Walton family, founders of Walmart. The organization has funneled millions toward education reform by way of supporting charter and voucher schools, especially in Milwaukee and more than a dozen other focus sites around the country. | June 27, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

The top position for Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland – a position rumored to have attracted Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton – will be filled by a Maryland school administrator, the Washington Post is reporting.

Kevin Maxwell, the superintendent of AnneArundelCounty schools, will be selected as chief executive officer of the state’s second-largest district according, to the report. The Prince George’s district has yet to confirm the announcement.

Although Thornton’s contract with MPS runs through June 2015, sources in local education circles suspected that Thornton may have been interested in the Prince George’s job, which is closer to his native Philadelphia. | June 27, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

New research co-authored by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor suggests that students admitted to elite universities or colleges under affirmative action policies are not necessarily harmed by the fact they may lack the same academic preparation as their peers, as critics contend.

In fact, the study showed mismatched students were more likely to persist at elite schools than other students with the same level of academic preparation who chose less competitive schools. They also did not pay a penalty, in terms of grades, for attending an elite school, according to a summary of the research provided by UW-Madison.

The research, to be published in the journal “Sociology of Education,” is particularly interesting in light of the Supreme Court earlier this week declining to make a decision in the case of Fisher vs. the University of Texas at Austin. That case was filed by an unsuccessful applicant to the university, who claimed she was discriminated against because she is white, and therefore, did not benefit from the school's diversity policy. | June 28, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(8)